


Life Will Change

by jaidaoliphant



Category: Persona 3, Persona 4, Persona 5
Genre: I promise, PT!Ken AU, Persona 4 Stuff doesn't start until later chapters but it's there
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-11
Updated: 2019-09-24
Packaged: 2020-10-14 09:27:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20598488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jaidaoliphant/pseuds/jaidaoliphant
Summary: After the Phantom Thieves become too much for the Shadow Operatives to ignore, and Ken is sent to Shujin Academy to investigate.





	1. Chapter 1

Shujin Academy was a towering building in front of Ken. But then again, that was what most high schools were like. It wasn’t as if Shujin Academy was any different from Gekkoukan Highschool. What intimidated Ken wasn’t the fact that he was going to a completely new school, in Tokyo of all places, what intimidated him was the mounting task that he’d been presented with. 

All things considered, Ken could have said no. Mitsuru wouldn’t have blamed him. He’d all but sworn off Shadow Operative duties until he graduated at the end of this year, but yet here he is investigating the Phantom Thieves. When Mitsuru came to him with the offer to move to Shibuya he wanted to say no, but Ken admitted that the Phantom Thieves worried him just as much as they worried Mitsuru. The Shadow Operatives had reported a potential shadow nest in the Shibuya area years ago, and it seemed like the Phantom Thieves were using it to change the hearts of their targets, at least that’s what Mitsuru suspected. 

Considering the amount of mental shutdown cases had increased suddenly in the past couple of years, and all the descriptions of them suggested some shadow or persona based cause, the Phantom Thieves could be trouble. That was why Mitsuru asked Ken to transfer to Shujin, and why Ken had agreed. 

Speaking of Mitsuru, Ken glanced down at his phone to check the email she sent him with his classroom number and homeroom teacher’s name. Dusk Hamachi, what kind of a name was that? His name was Dusk Tuna? He sounded like he was named by a couple of Americans who liked edgy anime. Whatever, that was something to file away to torment his new teacher with later. For now, Ken had to go through the mortifying ordeal of trying to navigate the halls of the giant school. 

Ken was staring down at his phone trying to make sense of the labyrinth of hallways in an attempt to find his way to the Teacher’s Office, when he bumped directly into someone. Ken looked up and saw that he’d walked directly into a student with unkempt black hair, glasses, and a bag that sounded like an outraged cat, strangely enough.

“Sorry! I really should have been paying attention,” Ken managed to get out before he seemed like more of an idiot.

“It’s alright.” The boy was really soft spoken, Ken noticed.

“Hey, this is my first day, do you know where to find the Teacher’s Office?”

“Yeah it’s on the second floor,” He said.

“Oh! So that’s why this map makes no sense.” Ken was looking on the wrong floor. “Well, thank you! I’m Amada Ken!” Ken held out his hand and the other boy took it.

“Kurusu Akira.” Ken paused. Kurusu Akira was a name Ken definitely recognised.

_Just my luck _, Ken thought. He’d managed to ram himself into one of the only people he was supposed to be subtle around. Well at least Ken got to meet the infamous transfer student with a criminal record. According to Mitsuru, he transferred to Shujin a couple of weeks before the Phantom Thieves’ first victim, Shujin Acadamy’s volleyball coach, had his change of heart. That made him suspect number one in the Shadow Operatives’ books.

“Well it was nice to meet you Kurusu-san, but I’ve got a Dusk Tuna to catch!” Ken waved. Kurusu furrowed his brow with confusion before moving on.

Ken had a much easier time making his way to the Teacher’s Office when he was actually on the right floor. It turns out his teacher looked exactly like someone named Dusk Tuna, somehow. Ken used all of his willpower to hold back his laughter.

“You must be Ken Amada, I’m Hamachi-sensei,” Ken’s new homeroom teacher said. Hamachi-sensei rolled his eyes when he noticed Ken’s amused expression. “Whatever jokes you have, I guarantee I’ve heard it before.” 

Okay, now Ken was having an even harder time not laughing. “It’s nice to meet you, Hamachi-Sensei,” Ken finally managed to get out. Hamchi-Sensei sighed and walked Ken to his classroom.

“Go ahead and introduce yourself,” Hamachi-Sensei said. He gestured to a seat next to a girl with short black hair and an attentive look on her face. “You can sit over there, next to Niijima-chan.” 

Ken quickly introduced himself to the class and sat down in the seat that Hamachi-sensei assigned, and the girl, Niijima, slid a book onto his desk. “Here, you can borrow this today, I always carry a spare,” she whispered. “I’m Niijima Makoto.”

Ken smiled. “Thank you.”

_Niijima must have forgotten that she lent him her book _, Ken thought, because once class was over Niijima had managed to disappear completely from the classroom. Ken looked all around the first floor trying to find her before trying the second floor. Niijima was in front of the Class 2D classroom, talking to Kurusu. That was interesting. Niijima wasn’t really a suspect before, but Ken might have to consider adding her to the list. 

“So, you’ll be able to come today?” Ken overheard Kurusu ask. 

“I’m not busy tonight, so it shouldn’t be an issue,” she replied. Whatever they we’re talking about, clearly they didn’t want to Ken to hear it, because they both stopped talking when Ken approached.

“Hey Niijima-san, I just wanted to return your book before you left.” Ken glanced at the two of them. Kurusu seemed surprised to have run into him for the second time today. It _ was _ an odd coincidence after all.

“Oh! I was in such a hurry I must have forgot, thank you!” Makoto replied hastily. She was looking over Ken, clearly trying to gauge how much of their conversation he’s heard.

“No, thank you for letting me borrow it.” Ken turned to Kurusu. “Hey Kurusu-san!”

“Hello.”

“We should get going. Goodbye Amada-kun.” Niijima started walking off, attempting to drag Kurusu with her.

Kurusu stopped and turned to face Ken. “Earlier, when you said you had to catch a “Dusk Tuna” what did you mean.” Was Kurusu still confused by that? Ken wondered if he’d been thinking about that all day. 

Niijima groaned. Ken got the feeling that she has heard the tuna jokes a lot. “He’s talking about our homeroom teacher.”

“Kurusu-san,” Ken whined, “you don’t understand, his name is Dusk Hamachi! How am I supposed to take that seriously?”

Kurusu smiled. “That sounds like the name of an edgy sushi restaurant.”

At least Kurusu shared Ken’s sense of humor, because Niijima clearly didn’t. She was sending Kurusu and exasperated look.

“Makoto, his name is Dusk Hamachi, I don’t know what you expected from me,” Kurusu said.

“Let’s just go, the others are probably waiting for us.” Niijima has shaking her head. She seemed to be used to this kind of thing from Kurusu.

“See ya.” Kurusu waved.

The more Ken thought about it, the more those two seemed suspicious. Ken wondered exactly what it was they were talking about that neither of them wanted Ken to hear. Ken’s curiosity got the better of him, and he started following the two of them.

Ken managed to follow Kurusu and Niijima all the way from Shujin to Shibuya without being seen. It was a surprise that they didn’t notice Ken in the same train car, but luckily the sheer amount of people on the subway and in the streets masked Ken’s presence and the two kept up a steady conversation while they were there. It was unfortunate Ken wasn’t able to get close enough to hear them. It started to get more tricky to avoid being seen when they started walking into the less busy parts of the subway station, but Ken followed them up to a walkway, where three other people were waiting to meet them. 

Kurusu put down his bag, and to Ken’s surprise, a black cat came out of the bag. That cat must have been the noises Ken was hearing coming from the bag earlier. It was extremely, in Ken’s honest opinion, unfair that Kurusu sneaks a cat into school, but if Ken tried to bring Koromaru he’d get turned away at the door. So what if Koromaru was ten times bigger than the cat? If Kurusu was able to bring an animal into the school then Ken should be able to as well.

“So who’s our target today?” a girl with long blonde pigtails. Target? That was extremely suspicious. Ken attempted to move in closer to get a better look. 

Kurusu started describing different targets, what they’d done to get his attention, and what all they needed to do. Occasionally another person would add a comment, and sometimes it felt like they we’re replying to nothing, but Ken was ecstatic. He not only found the Phantom Thieves on the first day, but he’d also managed to infiltrate one of their meetings! Mitsuru was going to be so proud of him! Sure Ken didn’t understand several of the terms they used, like “treasure” or “mementos”, and felt like he was missing several parts of the conversation, but that didn’t matter. He knew who the Phantom Thieves were and could probably have all their names within a couple of days. 

“We should get going. These hearts won’t change themselves,” Kurusu said, and that was the final nail in the coffin. These were definitely the Phantom Thieves. Ken had to give them props, it took guts to talk about their plans in the open like this. For a group that has managed to evade the police for months, they sure weren’t subtle.

Ken moved closer in an attempt to memorise the faces of the Thieves before they left, and felt a pit grow in his stomach the closer he got to them. He kept getting closer, until he felt nothing. It was almost as if, for just a second, he’s fallen out of reality. Nothing felt right, in fact nothing _ felt _. Until he was thrust back into himself and suddenly wasn’t in the walkway anymore. Instead he was back down in the underground walkway, but not the walkway he saw just a couple of minutes ago. This walkway was tinged red and the escalators seemed like they went on forever. Was this the shadow’s nest?

“Amada-kun? What are you doing here?” Ken whipped around and saw five people, all dressed up in variously themed costumes and masks, and a strange cat monster. Ken presumed the person in front, the one with the white and black masquerade mask and black trenchcoat, was the one who spoke. 

“Where am I?”


	2. Chapter 2

The six figures all looked perplexed at Ken’s abrupt appearance. How something with as much stuffed animal energy as Teddie managed to look confused, Ken didn’t know. That didn’t really matter though because the thing was aiming a slingshot at him.

“You know him, Queen?” A thuggish looking boy with bleached blonde hair and a skull mask asked. 

“He just transferred into my class today,” ‘Queen’ said. That had to be Niijima, the voice and hair matched. She looked completely different from the person Ken had seen just a couple of minutes earlier, she was wearing a corset of all things. She was wearing a mask like everyone else, though hers was a simple iron mask. “Were you following us Amada-kun,” she finally asked. 

“It doesn’t feel good, does it?” The boy in the skull mask asked, staring at Queen with an annoyed expression. There must be some sort of history there, because Queen flinched. The boy turned his head in Ken’s direction. “You want something, yeah? What is it.”

Ken cringed. He really didn’t expect his first day to go like this. He had no idea if he’d be able to get back here if they kicked him out, so he really needed to find a way to convince them to show him around, preferably without having to reveal his persona. Kala-Nemi would be a good trump card, but he’d rather not reveal that he had a persona until he absolutely had to. 

“I-i.” Ken was good at negotiating on the spot, he swore. 

Ken’s eyes flicked from one member of the group to another, one of them had to be the leader, and if Ken could figure out who, he could get the upper hand. Although Queen and thuggish looking one were looking at him expectantly, three of the other members, including the strange cat, kept glancing between Ken and one other person, waiting for his decision.

That person was wearing a long black coat over a black shirt, black pants, yeah it was a lot of black, and red gloves. His look was completed like everyone else’s, with a mask. His mask was a black and white domino mask. Ken looked closely at him, and recognised the unkempt black hair and grey eyes as Kurusu’s. If Kurusu was really the leader like Ken suspected, then Ken had a definite advantage.

“What should we do, Joker?” The strange cat expectantly looked at Kurusu, or “Joker”.

“Joker, is it? Or rather Kurusu-san.” 

Joker’s eyes widened a bit before his expression settled back into the image of a calm and collected leader. “You were following us from the school. Why?” 

“It is strange that you would follow people you barely know.” It was the first time the person with the fox mask spoke up. It was hard to tell under the mask, but he seemed confused.

“Yeah that’s really shady, ya know?”

“I-,” Ken smoothly started. He took a deep breath. Ken needed to get on these people’s good sides now, or else it likely wouldn’t happen. “I’m sorry, I was curious when I heard you two talking and I ended up following you. It’s a problem, I know.”

“Are you implying that this is a regular thing for you?” Well, when Joker puts it like that, it does sound really weird. Whatever, Ken was already losing whatever ground he had before, so he just had to work with it. 

“Yeah, I have a self control problem. I’m really sorry about this. While I’m here, wherever here is, I’d like to see more of it. I swear I’ll leave you alone after today, if you want.”

“Absolutely not.” Queen responded immediately. 

“I mean, my curiosity is peaked, and I’d hate it if my lack self control made me bother you guys more after today. This problem would easily be solved if you showed me around.”

“You can’t just use that as a catch all!” Oh Ken could, and he absolutely would. He’d committed to it now, so there was no point in letting it go to waste. 

Joker gestured to a corner of the area a little further away. “Let’s discuss this, somewhere where Amada-senpai won’t hear.” He pointed at Ken. “You stay there, Mona keep an eye on him.”

The group moved over to where Joker instructed. Mona, who was apparently the strange cat, kept his eye on Ken the entire time. You would think the large room would have some kind of echo, but it turns out this place defied all logic, because why wouldn’t it? Ken couldn’t hear a thing the group was saying, and he had a feeling he’d dig himself into an even bigger hole than he already had if he tried to move in closer. Mona was giving Ken a death glare, after all. From body language alone, Ken could tell that they were conflicted on what to do with him. It was not great, but it was better than a flat out refusal. 

After what felt like hours of deliberation, the group split and everyone seemed satisfied with the results of the conversation. Ken could only hope that he’d be satisfied too. 

“Amada-senpai, we will let you see more of Mementos, you have to cooperate with everything we say. In exchange, don’t follow us around anymore, and don’t tell anyone about what you see while you’re here.” Ken respected how Joker commanded respect whenever he spoke, yet never seemed intimidating. He was a natural leader, but he wasn’t intimidating or forceful. He gestured at the rest of his team. “We are the Phantom Thieves. That’s Panther, Queen, Mona, Skull, and Fox.” Somehow each and every codename fit. Most of them had names that matched their masks. 

“You’ve gotta stay out of the way, yeah?”

Ken nodded. “I’ll stay back and watch. Thank you so much!” 

“Skull, Mona, and Queen will be with me. Panther and Fox stay back with Amada-senpai and I’ll switch you out about halfway through.”

Everyone nodded and followed Joker down the escalators.

  


Mona, could turn into a bus. A bus that looked like it was straight out of a movie. Ken has seen some weird things, but this had to be top of the list. What was the protocol for sitting inside of a cat that turned into a bus? When Ken started having a mental competition over who was weirder, Mona or Teddie, he didn’t know, but so far Mona was starting to take the lead, somehow. Ken had no idea what to do except sit and let the vibrations from the train tracks distract him from the strange turn of events. 

Panther and Fox we’re sitting in the back of the bus along with Ken while the other four took up the front. Panther looked over and noticing Ken’s confusion. 

“It’s a lot to get used to, I don’t understand it all myself.”

“What is this place anyways? I heard Joker call it Mementos, but what does that mean exactly?”

Panther glanced over at Joker. “I’m not sure how much we’re supposed to say, but we call it the Metaverse. I guess you could think of it as the thoughts of people come to life.” It was hard to discern Panther’s expression with her mask covering a majority of her face, but her lips pursed as she decided what else she wanted to say.

“Mementos is the collective unconscious of man,” Fox added.

“Yeah! I looked into it once, and apparently some Swiss psychologist came up with the idea, I didn’t understand a lot of it, but it was interesting!”

“Carl Jung?” Ken remembered the name from when he looked into shadows and personas. It was really interesting to compare the original theories of personas and shadows to the actual thing. So Ken was a nerd, sue him.

“Yeah, that one! Anyways he wasn’t completely wrong, even though I don’t think he had Mementos in mind…” 

“I’m inclined to agree,” Fox nodded.

It was hard to believe that anyone could have guessed that anyone could have guessed what the collective unconscious looks like. Ken wondered just how much the perception of people changed the form of Mementos, if it was like Tartarus then that means the layout could change every day. 

Ken’s train of thought was interrupted when the bus approached what looked like a shadow and everybody jumped out of the bus. Mona turned back into his cat form and the four thieves started fighting. 

“We call those shadows and what Joker just summoned is a persona.” Ken nodded, it wasn’t very surprising that the Phantom Thieves had personas, but Ken could tell the summoning method was different from what he was used to.

“Do you guys summon personas by tearing off your masks?” Ken saw Joker holding his mask in his hand as a persona stood behind him. The persona behind him changed. Was Joker able to use different personas, like Minato and Yu? That definitely made things interesting. “Didn’t Joker just have a different one?” 

“Yeah, when we tear off our masks our personas appear. As for Joker, he’s the only one who can use more than one persona, none of us are sure why, though.”

“You’re taking all this quite well,” Fox observed.

“I- yeah. It’s all really weird, but it’s really cool! I would have never guessed that anything like this existed.” Fox hummed, but he didn’t say anything.

Watching the group’s fighting style was fascinating. In a lot of ways they fought like Ken was used to. They all flanked the shadow from different directions and attempted to hit it’s weakness. Ken could see Joker knock down the last standing enemy with one of his many personas, and another similarity in their fighting styles emerged when Ken saw the four all jump in and attack the enemy at once. 

“Have you guys always fought like this?” Ken asked.

“Yeah, we have been at least since I joined. It’s worked really well so far.” Ken agreed, their strategies were really sound, it was amazing how they’d come up with it on their own. 

The fight ended very quickly and everyone jumped back into the bus to continue the trip down the subway.

  


The group had managed to descend several levels, and fought every shadow they came across with ease. The Phantom Thieves definitely had experience. Ken was beyond happy to get to see it for himself, and so quickly too. 

“I’m sorry Joker, but I don’t think I can do much more today, I’m at my limit.”

Joker shook his head. “It’s okay, you did great today Queen. We’ll switch Panther in next battle.” 

Ken smiled, Joker was an amazing leader, it made Ken miss Minato and his time in S.E.E.S. It was really too bad Ken couldn’t join in the fighting, his evoker was safe in his bag, but his spear was at his apartment. It was bad form to bring a spear on the first day of school, after all. Not that Ken would have gotten caught with it, he’d been hiding weapons for years.

Ken watched Joker jump into battle with the three others by his side. This shadow looked stronger than the ones everyone had been fighting so far, and with everyone starting to get tired, Ken was worried. 

The shadow was smart, and managed to evade a lot of the attacks thrown at it. It hit hard too, Panther and Mona had a hard time keeping up with healing. Joker kept trying to find it’s weakness, but was running out of energy fast. He pulled out a thermos and started drinking out of it as fast as he could, but the shadow saw the opportunity to attack. It lunged for Joker at full speed and Ken’s reacted without a thought.

Ken had no clue when he’d pulled out his Evoker, but it must have been sometime before he tossed his bag behind him and started sprinting towards Joker. Nothing mattered but getting himself between the shadow and Joker.

Mona was shouting.“Ken what are you doing, you can’t fig-”

Ken pointed the evoker to his head. “Persona!” Ken shouted, and Kala-Nemi flared to life behind him and used a barrier to prevent Ken or Joker from getting hit. The shadow looked confused, it must not have expected Ken to jump into battle so quickly. Ken took a huge risk and commanded Kala-Nemi to use Hamaon. The risk was worth it, the spell hit and destroyed the shadow in one hit.

Ken sighed, glad everyone was safe. He turned around and saw that everyone was staring at him. 

“I- I guess I have some explaining to do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really appreciate all the wonderful comments I got last chapter. I'm not really great at answering comments, but I read and appreciated all of them!  
I noticed that a lot of you liked Ken's interactions with Akira, which is good to hear because it's a huge part of this fic, trust me :)  
If you want to ask specific questions, shoot me an ask over at my tumblr, my name is mtladies!


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